This item contains a newspaper clipping of “Activist Challenges Ideal of Beauty” by Ellis Baker, published in The Bellingham Herald on Monday, May 14, 1990. The article profiles Nikki Craft’s feminist activism, civil disobedience, anti-beauty-pageant work, anti-pornography organizing, and critique of women’s objectification in advance of her slideshow presentation, “In Defense of Disobedience: Refusing to be Objectified and Exploited,” sponsored by Whatcom County N.O.W.

Image 1: The clipping is from page C2 of The Bellingham Herald, dated Monday, May 14, 1990. The headline reads “Activist challenges ideal of beauty.” The article describes Craft as defying the American ideal of beauty and traces her activism across more than twenty years, including challenges to beauty contests, systems of sexual terrorism, pornography, child molestation, and male violence against women.

The article announces Craft’s slideshow presentation, “In Defense of Disobedience: Refusing to be Objectified and Exploited,” scheduled for 7 p.m. that evening at Lecture Hall 4 on campus, sponsored by Whatcom County N.O.W. It quotes Craft on civil disobedience, patriarchy, rape, eating disorders, pornography, child molestation, and the need for women to redefine society and resist male violence.

The article also documents Craft’s beauty-pageant protests, including the “birth” of a photographer out of a dress during a Santa Cruz protest; her series of annual pageant actions; “beauty obedience schools for women”; and critiques of beauty standards, slenderness, cosmetic culture, and women’s bodies being literally and figuratively consumed.

This item documents contemporary press coverage of Craft’s 1990 Bellingham speaking engagement and situates that event within her broader radical feminist critique of beauty culture, pornography, sexual violence, and civil disobedience.

Part of the Nikki Craft Archival Project

Speaking Engagements & Lecture Posters

Keywords:

Nikki Craft, radical feminism, feminist activism, civil disobedience, Speaking Engagements & Lecture Posters, Ellis Baker, The Bellingham Herald, Whatcom County N.O.W., Bellingham, Washington, In Defense of Disobedience, beauty standards, ideal of beauty, beauty pageants, Myth California, anti-pornography activism, feminist slideshow, feminist lecture, women’s objectification, patriarchy, rape, sexual violence, pornography, child molestation, eating disorders, beauty obedience school, feminist performance art, guerrilla theater, women’s rights, 1990

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